


forever is a strong word (and i mean it)

by graveltotempo



Series: The Hale-Stilinski Pack [15]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A Very Sterek Summer Fest 2020, Allison Argent & Stiles Stilinski Are Twins, Attempt at Humor, Day At The Beach, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Holidays, M/M, Pack Dynamics, Pack Mom Stiles Stilinski, Pining Isaac Lahey, Slice of Life, hinting at cora/isaac, hinting at cora/jackson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:53:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25526995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graveltotempo/pseuds/graveltotempo
Summary: the hale pack goes to the beach: cue beach volley, road trips, sweating, swimming, pining and very bad singing.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: The Hale-Stilinski Pack [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/360254
Comments: 10
Kudos: 212
Collections: A Very Sterek Summer fest 2020





	forever is a strong word (and i mean it)

“We should go to the Beach,” was the first thing Lydia Martin said, opening the doors of the pack House.

Cora had a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth; Erica, Stiles, Scott and Isaac were playing a ridiculous card game only they could answer; Boyd and Allison were playing mario kart with Jackson laying next to them observing the match; and Derek was standing on the couch wondering what possessed him to make a pack made entirely by teenagers.

Lydia huffed, never a fan of being ignored. “We should go to the beach,” she repeated, and finally Stiles looked up at her.

“Plus four,” he said, dropping an uno card, then squinted at her. “What? Why?”

“It’s too hot, and we don’t have classes on Thursday nor Friday. That means we can leave on Thursday early morning, and leave on Sunday early morning. It’s perfect.”

“Double aces bitches!” called Erica and Lydia frowned at her for a second. 

Then she turned to Derek. “Pack bonding and leaving the heat of Beacon Hills for a while. It’s perfect.”

“Pikachu I choose you,” sing sang Scott, making the other three groan in frustration.

Lydia blinked. “What the hell are they playing?”

Derek shook his head. “Don’t ask. They tried to explain the rules to me and I’m pretty sure I lost brain cells listening to them. But,” he hummed thoughtfully. “I could use a break from being cooped in here. And I do like the beach.”

Allison paused the game, ignoring Jackson’s complaints and Boyd’s grumbles. “Wait, are we for real? We’re going to the beach?”

Lydia sat down, pleased that the others had started listening to her. “My mom has a house on Kirby Cove Beach, and it’s big enough to host the whole pack. All you’d need to bring is beach stuff and clothes. And if any parent asks, just lie and say my mom is with us.”

Boyd hummed thoughtfully. “My mom thinks that Derek is helping out the troubled youths of Beacon Hills after that Christmas party, so she’ll be okay with me going.”

“Queen of hearts!” said Erica, before turning around. “Same as Vernon, my grandma is just happy I have friends now.” She rolled her eyes at this, then relaxed when Scott patted her shoulder gently.

Isaac frowned. “I don’t know, I’ll have to ask my guardian.” He made wide eyes at Derek, and blinked. “Can I go to the beach with my friends, Derek?”

Cora giggled in her ice cream, while the Alpha just rolled his eyes at the beta. “Just for that we will all go and leave you here alone.”

“Ehi!”

* * *

**DAY ONE**

After that, it was surprisingly easy to plan the trip, and by the time Thursday rolled down, the entire pack was in front of the Hale House with various amount of luggage around them.

They had decided on three cars to take them to the Kirby Cove (Derek’s Camaro, Lydia’s Prius and Allison’s Madza), much to Stiles and Jackson’s complaints.

“I just don’t get why we’re not taking Roscoe! She’s the perfect car for road trips, and this is  _ almost  _ a road trip!”

“Dude, your car overheats like crazy in the summer,” said Scott, with an eyebrow raise. “How do you think it’ll feel driving for three hours with three people inside?”

“My porche does not have that problem!” immediately tried Jackson, wrapping his arms around his chest. “It’s perfect.”

“Can you honestly imagine three or four people comfortably fitting inside it? And you’d probably spend the whole ride complaining every time someone moved inside it,” said Allison, rolling her eyes. Then she turned to Derek, ignoring the other two grumbling boys. “How do we choose?”

“I do  _ not  _ want Stilinski in my car!” immediately called Lydia.

Stiles’ splutters grew in volume. “Excuse me? I’m a delight!”

“You’re a backseat driver, it’s what you are,” accused him the red haired girl. “Last time we had to follow that incubus around and you were in my car, I nearly killed you right there and then.”

The brunet winced, remembering that particular episode. But, in his defense it wasn’t his fault Lydia drove like a bat out of hell and he had been raised properly by a law enforcer. When he had pointed this out to her last time, he had nearly died tho, so he didn’t repeat it this time.

Erica pulled out her phone, shaking an app in their faces. “Don’t worry; I’d rather not have to go through that whole PE class sorting, so we will let the gods of statistics choose who goes with who.”

Which is how Scott and Isaac ended up with Derek, Boyd, Cora and Jackson ended up with Allison and Erica and Stiles ended up with Lydia. Once the results were called, Lydia took a deep breath then promptly smashed her own head against the steering wheel.

+

**_car one_ **

“Jesus, dude, what kind of music is this?” complained Scott, staring at the radio in disgust.

Derek met his eye in the mirror, hunching in his shoulders a little. “What’s wrong with this music?”

“Nothing, if you’re a  _ grandmother _ ,” drawled the blond in the backseat, a single raised brow. “Seriously, Derek. Theater music?”

Scott slowly turned to face Isaac, a little incredulous smile popping on his face. “And  _ you know  _ what kind of music it is?”

Isaac turned a little red, pushing Scott’s face back in front. “It’s called being cultured.”

The other werewolf just kept grinning, very amused. “You’re a nerd, man.”

You’d think Scott had just insulted him with the way Isaac turned red and tried to reach forward and hit him. “I’m not!”

“Are too!”

“Am not!”

Derek gave a long suffering look at the clock in his car. It hadn’t even been 20 minutes.

+

**_car two_ **

“All right,” started Allison, few minutes after she had started the car. “We have the most amount of people, which also means we have the biggest chance of people snapping and killing each other in cold blood.” She glanced at Boyd in the seat next to her and then back at Cora and Jackson. “I do  _ not  _ want to have to clean blood out of my car carpet.”

“Sure,  _ mom _ ,” joked Jackson, but Allison was already glaring at him through the front seat mirror.

“See, that’s exactly one thing that would make me willing to kill you.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t make me want to kill you.”

Jackson swallowed.

Then, 

“I kind of need to go to the bathroom?”

Allison growled.

+

**_car three_ **

“What?” snapped Lydia, about half an hour after they had started driving. Erica was quietly tapping on her phone, not paying any attention to her or where they were going.

Stiles on the other side, was staring at her and the wheel and the road ahead, clutching tightly on the seatbelt and making various faces as they drove.

The brunet shrugged. “I haven’t said anything.”

“Yeah, but you’re making a face and it’s making me want to hit you with the steering wheel,” she said, glancing towards him. 

“Look at the road, for the  _ love of god _ !” he screeched immediately, knuckles white against the steering wheel. “You’re gonna kill us all, woman!”

“Yeah, you’re lookin’ at the truth, the money never lie no,” sang Erica, tapping at her phone. “I’m the one, yeah, I’m the one,”

Lydia’s snipe stopped in her throat and she glanced at the werewolf in the backseat. Stiles narrowed his eyes at the blonde, but Erica didn’t even look at them.

“Early mornin’ in the dawn, know you wanna ride now, I’m the one yeah, I’m the one yeah,”

Stiles hummed along a few seconds later, “Yeah you’re sick of all those other imitators, don’t let the only real one intimidate ya! See you watchin’ don’t run outta time now,”

Lydia tapped her fingers to the rhythm, humming along with them as they continued singing.

Erica hid her smirk behind a hand.

+

**_car one_ **

“Are you stupid?!” questioned Isaac, voice raised. “Fish are wet!”

“You’re not thinking about it properly!” complained Scott, eyes flashing a little. “The fish is technically in a stasis when it’s in the water. Think about it the same way you think about Schrodinger's cat!”

“You’re bringing Schrodinger's cat into this?!”

“Let me  _ finish! _ Until we open the box we don’t know if the cat is dead or alive; it’s technically both. The same thing can be said about the fish. If you put your hand in the water and touch the fish does it feel wet? No it doesn’t because you’re in water! So, until the fish is out of the water, it’s technically not wet!”

Isaac kept staring at Scott like he had grown another head. “You’re  _ crazy _ . The definition of wet is  _ covered in water _ . A fish at sea is very much covered in water, I’d like to think!”

“But to be able to assess that something is wet with our human senses, we have to take it  _ out of the water _ .” Scott tapped his head like he had just unleashed a particularly hard to disprove theory instead of chaos upon Derek’s car. “You can see it, dude. Derek! You agree with me right?”

Derek, who had almost started crying the moment the argument started, shook his head resolutely. “Don’t. Don’t involve me in this. I’m barely keeping myself from not crashing the car into the nearest wall.”

+

**_car two_ **

“Everyone got what they wanted?” questioned Allison, even as she already pulled out of the rest stop.

Jackson nodded nervously, taking a sip of his Dr. Pepper and trying to maneuver the sleeping Cora so that she didn’t get a kink in her neck from the way she was laying.

“Boyd?” she questioned, glancing at the man next to her.

The werewolf pulled an ear phone out and quirked an eyebrow at her.

“I’m not stopping for the next hour. You better have everything you need.” she explained, and the werewolf gave her a look as he put the earplugs on, as if to say ‘ _ who do you think I am?’.  _ Which, true.

Allison hit the gas and Jackson swore as he was pulled forward and some of his drink fell on Cora.

Silence.

Then, “Did it get on my seat?!” screeched the driver, while the werewolf in the backseat growled and pounced on the blond in the very small area of the backseat. “Don’t get coke or blood on my seat!”

Boyd turned up the volume to drown the sounds of mayhem around him.

+

**_car three_ **

“HIT IT FERGIE!” sang Stiles, grinning.

“ALL THE TIME I TURN AROUND BROTHAS GATHER ROUND, ALWAYS LOOKING AT ME UP AND DOWN LOOKING AT MY UH,” shouted Erica, using the empty water bottle as a microphone.

Then it was Lydia’s turn, sunglasses on her eyes as she tapped the steering wheel with a finger. “I JUST WANNA SAIT NOW I AIN’T TRYING ROUND DRAMA LITTLE MAMA, I DON’T WANNA TAKE YOUR MAN,”

“AND I DON’T KNOW I’M COMING OFF A LITTLE BIT CONCEITED AND I KEEP ON REPEATING HOW THE BOYS WANNA EAT IT BUT I’M TRYING TO TELL THAT, I CAN’T BE TREATED LIKE”

“CLIENTELE,” chorused Lydia and Erica.

Stiles kept rapping. “ CAUSE THEY SAY SHE DELICIOUS”

“SO DELICIOUS!”

“BUT I AIN’T PROMISCUOUS, AND IF YOU WAS SUSPICIOUS ALL THAT SHIT IS FICTITIOUS, I BLOW KISSES,”

“MWAH,”

“THAT PUT THEM BOYS ON ROCK, ROCK, AND THEY BE LINING DOWN THE BLOCK JUST TO WATCH WHAT I GOT,”

Then, all three of them together. “FOUR, TRES, TWO, UNO!”

+

**_car one_ **

“Want to play a game?” asked Isaac, a while later.

Derek had found that, once he stopped at a rest stop and filled them with (non greasy non sticky) snacks and drinks (which he forced them to pour in water bottles), they ended up being too busy eating chewing and drinking to argue about stupid shit.

Should have known that they would spend the time chewing by thinking about other ways to  _ ruin his life _ . He  _ almost  _ wished Stiles was there. 

“It’s called Stiles or Prada: I give you actual quotes I’ve heard Derek say and you have to guess if he was talking to Stiles or Lydia’s dog.”

“What.”

“I’m in!” immediately said Scott, eyes twinkling mischievously.

People always made the mistake of thinking Scott was innocent, or calm, or level headed at all times. But there was a reason Stiles and Scott were best friends; you don’t become Stiles Stilinski’s best friend without a little bit of mischief in you. People had learn the hard way not to underestimate Scott McCall.

“Stop humping my leg,” started Isaac, and Scott snorted.

“Prada is too classy to hump anyone’s leg. Stiles.”

“Point!”

Derek shook his head. “I hate you so much,” he told them.

Isaac grinned. “Definitely said to both of them at some point!”

+

**_car two_ **

For the almost three hour ride, Allison had ruled her car with an iron fist. Nothing happened without her explicit consent, and the few things that happened without her consent had led to her almost opening her car in the highway to push the werewolves out of there.

Her rules were law because her car was her kingdom. 

She clenched her fingers around the steering wheel, and swallowed. She glanced in the rearview mirror; Cora had her head on Jackson’s shoulder, and the two of them were watching something on the blond’s phone. Boyd’s eyes were closed, and his head was on the mirror, but from the way he tapped his fingers on his thigh to keep the rhythm of whatever song he was listening to in his earphones.

She cleared her throat, and all three werewolves turned their attention on her.

Allison felt her cheeks heating up, but still she spoke. “There is a rest stop ahead. I’m gonna stop so I can go to the bathroom.”

“BOO!” Immediately chorused the backseat betas, faces gleefully evil. “BOOH! BOOH!”

Even Boyd was smirking, shaking his head in mock disappointment. “You’re breaking the rules, miss Argent.”

“You’re breaking the rules!” added Cora, immensely amused.

“BOO!” Added Jackson.

Allison  _ hated  _ her friends.

+

**_car three_ **

“The feeling got lost in my lungs, they’re burning I’d rather be numb and there’s no one else to blame,” sang Stiles, shaking his head a little and passing the plastic bottle to Erica.

“So scared I take off and I run, I’m flying too close to the sun…. AND I BURST INTO FLAMEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS,”

“You make me glooooooow… but I cover up, won’t let it shoooooow,” continued Lydia, voice slowly building up. “‘So I’m putting my defenses up cause I don’t wanna fall in love! If I ever did that… I think I’d have a heart ATTAAAAAAAYEAH!”

“YES!” Screamed the other two clapping while Lydia absolutely butchered the high note. They had been driving for almost three hours and two things were clear: Lydia was a  _ terrible terrible  _ singer; Lydia wasn’t  _ aware  _ that she was a terrible singer. And there was no way either Erica or Stiles was going to clue her in on that.

Plus, they were having fun, and singing with friends to whatever song that they wanted wasn’t about being in tune. Sure, Erica and Stiles’ ears might have appreciated it more if Lydia didn’t butcher all of their fave songs, but it could be worse. As long as she didn’t harm Beyonce’s music, Erica could survive.

* * *

“We are changing cars on our way back,” immediately said Derek when Erica, Lydia and Stiles walked inside the house, the last group to arrive. He made a beeline for his boyfriend, wrapping both arms around him and kissing his cheek. “I don’t understand how I survived before you joined the pack. They are the  _ worst.” _

Stiles glanced to where Scott and Isaac were sitting, looking innocently at him. He turned to Derek with a suspicious look. “You have Isaac and Scott. They are like the nicest people in our pack.”

Derek’s eyes were wide as he shook his head vehemently. “No! They are  _ terrible _ , like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Sure thing, big guy,” commented Stiles, patting his arm in a manner that showed he didn’t really believe him. 

Jackson looked up at Lydia as the redhead sat down on the couch. “Allison threatened us with murder several times. We have to change cars on our way back.”

“No way,” complained Erica. “We had so much fun! We sang the entire way over,”

Jackson’s face turned confused. “But Lydia can’t-  _ ehi _ !”

“And we had so much fun!” continued Erica, like she hadn’t just and very deliberately stepped on Jackson’s foot. “So no take backsies.”

“I’m the Alpha,” growled Derek, but with the way he was dressed in an open shirt, shorts and flip flops, he wasn’t very menacing. “If I say we’ll change, we’ll change.”

“Okay, Alpha,” drawled Lydia, rolling her eyes. “whatever you say. Jackson, get my bags from the car please?”

Erica lit up, turning to Boyd. “Oh, Boyd-”

“Sure thing,” answered her boyfriend, pressing a kiss on her head.

Stiles turned to Derek, batting his eyelashes expectantly.

Derek didn’t move an inch from where he was. 

Stiles pouted, standing up. “Why don’t you love me?” he whined, even as he dragged his feet back to the car. “See if I allow you to change the seating arrangements, now!”

The Alpha’s eyes widened, and he was rushing after Stiles in seconds. “Wait, Stiles!”

+

After deciding on how to divide the six bedrooms in Lydia’s house (Derek and Stiles in one, Jackson and Lydia, Erica and Boyd, Scott and Allison, one for Cora and one for Isaac), the entire Hale Pack was changed in costumes and outside on the beach. It was already past lunch time, but with the amount of snacks all of them had consumed on the ride over, no one was particularly hungry. 

Lydia immediately found a place for herself on the very empty beach and put down a towel and her bag down on the sand, with a satisfied hum.

Jackson pulled down his douchebag glasses and gave her a look. “Not even trying to get in the water?”

The red head gave him a little shrug, “I plan to be very much tanned by the time we get back. I’ll take my chances with the water at some other time. Join me?”

The werewolf looked between her and the water, face scrunching up a little. Cora was the only other member of the pack who had headed straight into the water, her  [ red two piece ](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c8/3a/12/c83a12a6c7e3471b36ed9b4c95c95265.jpg) immediately turning almost black the moment the water touched it. 

“Or don’t,” said the red head, rolling her head slightly and laying down on the towel, a little miffed. It’s not like she was jealous of Cora Hale - or at least, she didn’t think she was. She was Derek’s sister. She was pack or family or whatever.

But it did make her feel weird, having another girl in the Pack. Not in an “I’m the only girl that deserves to be here” type of way; after all, she was best friends with Allison and Erica both by now.

But still, her own insecurity in her place in the pack, despite both Stiles and Derek telling her how unfounded it was, seemed to have started rearing her head again the moment Cora started hanging out more and more with the Pack. 

Thankfully, for now, they mostly saw her on weekends or on the few occasions she was at Derek’s place instead of home. She didn’t even go to the same school as them, so Lydia had still some time to control her emotions around the girl before she became officially pack.

Because Lydia already knew she’d become pack.

“I’ll come by later on,” promised Jackson, leaning down and putting his sunglasses on her. 

Lydia allowed him to press a kiss on her forehead before the man ran and jumped in the water.

“Need some sunscreen?” asked Derek, a few seconds later, dropping his own bag and towel next to the red head. 

She looked at him with an arched eyebrow. “What, no water for you?”

The Alpha shrugged and jerked his chin in the direction of where Stiles and Isaac were standing, buckets in their hands. Even from that far, Lydia could see the white lines of sunscreen on the brunet’s skin.

“He burns within seconds,” he explained. “Also, my sister is in the water. And I have no intention of becoming her victim already. Our vacation just started.”

Lydia agreed with a hum and turned back on her stomach, making sure her  [ bikini  ](https://bestofcomicbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Holland-Roden-awesome-bikini.jpg) stayed perfectly in place. As pack members, they were used to partial nudity every now and then, but Lydia drew the line at losing her top while Derek was applying sunscreen on her.

Once Derek was done with her, she offered to do it for him too.

The Alpha just grinned. “Werewolf,” he explained easily. “I’d need a very strong tanning booth to get tanned. There are some made especially for werewolves.”

“I don’t know if I hate you or pity you more, right now,” she said, laying with her stomach up. “If you’re not tanning, what are you doing?”

“Relaxing,” he said, like it was obvious. “Letting my ears rest from the double harassment that are Scott and Isaac together.”

The red head laughed. “They are everyone’s little brothers. Of course they are annoying.”

“Thank you! Stiles never believes me when I say that they are terrible,” if she didn’t know better, she’d say that the Big Bad Alpha was pouting. “They were playing this game in the car, ‘Stiles or Prada?’.”

“Oh yeah, Erica invented that,” at the very unsurprised huff from the older man, she smirked a little. “You do tend to speak to Stiles and my dog in a very similar matter. Once I heard you say, “ _ what do you have in your mouth? Spit it out!” _ and I came rushing out to check what Prada was eating, but you were talking to your ridiculous boyfriend. You’d think that in a house full of werewolves,”

“Do not finish that sentene, Martin.”

The banshee just laughed.

They stayed there for about two hours before they decided to collect the rest of their ragtag pack and go get a late lunch/early dinner at the restaurant on the beach. 

Scott, Allison, Erica and Boyd were in the middle of a very vicious beach volley battle, one couple versus the other, and a number of the few people on the beach were watching the two teams try to kill each other over a game.

Stiles and Isaac were among the onlookers, and the grinned in amusement when the two of them finally showed up.

“How is it going?” questioned Derek, right as Erica scored another point for her team.

“Take that Scallison!” she shouted.

Lydia’s eyebrow went higher up. “Scallison?” she repeated, as Allison scowled and picked the ball again.

“Versus Berica,” told her Isaac. “It’s all very  _ Tumblr _ .”

“Next score and you’re done!” called Derek before Allison could manage to send the ball on the other side. “We’re all going to lunch. Dinner. Whatever, we’re eating.”

Allison gave him a disappointed look. “But it’s currently 6-6!”

Lydia blinked. “You made a total of twelve points in two hours?”

“It’s been an intense match,” told her a blond haired boy in front of them. He grinned at her. “I’m Sandy.”

The girl ignored him, and turned her attention past the two teams to where Jackson and Cora were approaching them, the brunette on Jackson’s back like a particularly stubborn monkey. Her eye ticked.

When she turned back around, Isaac was also staring at the two of them. He caught Lydia frowning at him and blushed, turning resolutely back to the game.

_ Interesting _ .

“You better get a white flag and start waving it, Allison, cause we’re winning this thing!” shouted Erica, as Boyd sent the ball in their direction.

“The only thing I’ll be waving,” said Allison, catching the ball and sending it to Scott. She glared at the blonde. “Will be your decapitated head on a stick in front of your weeping mother!”

Silence.

“Good god, Alli,” muttered Isaac, shaking his head, while Derek gaped at the brunette. Stiles caught the ball before either one of them could score, an arched eyebrow. 

“I think we should get something to eat now, before we end up with less people than we had when we came here.” he suggested, and the girl scratched her neck sheepishly.

Then she turned to Erica, grabbing her hand into hers. “I wouldn’t  _ really  _ wave around your decapitated head,” she promised. Jackson and Cora, who had just reached them didn’t even blink. It was a true testament of the kind of shit that happened to their pack on a daily basis that they could hear that sentence from a pack member and think, ' _Just another Thursday_ '.

“And I’m sorry for saying I’d knock all your teeth out and wear them as a necklace while playing the guitar with your ligaments,” told her the blonde, squeezing her hand.

Allison blinked. “You didn’t say that.”

“I thought it,” confessed the other, glad when instead of being scared or annoyed, Allison just laughed.

Stiles came to stand between the two of them, unclasping their hands so he could link his arms with theirs. “Good to see my two favourite girls getting along.”

After that whole  _ Luke-and-Leia  _ bombshell of ‘you’re twins’, (read:  [ x ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11245719) ) things had gotten a little awkward between Stiles and Allison. While Stiles had gone home and told his father that he loved him and he was his real father no matter what blood said, Allison had gone home and shouted at hers, asking him why he never told her the truth - especially after she started spending time with Stiles - and why would he let complete strangers tell her the whole truth.

They, for the best part, did their best to get to know each other all over again, trying to fill each other on the gaps in their childhoods - Stiles didn’t particularly care for information about Chris Argent (yes, his dad was his dad, but it was a little hurtful to know that Chris, as his  _ biological  _ father, had basically ignored him, while being aware that Stiles was his blood), but Allison had been hungry for any scrap of information on her  _ real  _ mother. It was mostly that which helped make them closer; Allison clearly had  _ not  _ had a good step parent in Victoria Argent, and talking to someone about his mother, someone who wasn’t his father, hurt in a  _ good  _ way. 

Now, while sometimes it still confused him to think that he was  _ not  _ an only child, he was happy to consider Allison his sister (“ _ Older _ sister,” “we’re  _ twins! _ ” “Technically, I came out 30 minutes before you did,” “You came out? Happy pride!”).

“Favourite ladies?” commented Lydia, turning to stare at him from behind Jackson’s sunglasses.

Stiles let go of the other two and quickly approached the red head, grabbing her smaller hand into his. “Oh, come on, you know you’re my absolute soulmate, Lyds,” he told her, pressing a kiss on her cheek.

She hummed, pleased, while Scott turned to look at Stiles, betrayed. “ _ Lydia  _ is your soulmate? What am I, then?”

“You’re my bestest  _ and  _ oldest friend,” floundered Stiles, rushing next to the other man. “You know that, man.”

“Aren’t  _ I  _ your oldest friend?” commented Cora, all innocent. “You met me before you met him.”

The brunet turned to his boyfriend, eyes pleading. “ _ Help _ .”

“Your mess,” told him the Alpha, a casual arm thrown around Jackson’s neck. Then, he faked a pout. “Also I thought that, as your boyfriend, I was your best friend.”

“Kill me. Literally, kill me.”

* * *

**DAY TWO**

By the time they were done with dinner/lunch, the early morning they had pulled and the car ride tiredness, coupled with with their full stomachs had made itself known.

In the end, instead of everyone coupling up in their respective bedrooms, they had brought out all the blankets and pillows and created some sort of nest in the living room and then fell asleep in a tangle of limbs and hair that was completely normal for a pack of werewolves (plus a banshee, a spark and a huntress).

Had it been for Stiles, they would have stayed asleep till late noon, but some of the members had different ideas, considering the way he was being poked around by some of the pack.

“I’m going to hex you if you don’t stop that,” he groaned, turning his face deeper in the pillow.

The finger didn’t stop poking. “You literally  _ cannot  _ hex me. You’re not a witch,” told him the owner of the voice, and Stiles cracked his eyes open to glare at his boyfriend.

Derek, on his part, didn’t even blink at his hostility. “Me and some of the pack are leaving. Are you coming?”

Stiles huffed and puffed before lifting himself up from his cocoon of blankets. He was a little gross and sweaty - werewolves ran  _ hot _ \- meanwhile Derek looked all fresh and clean. Stiles hated him a little bit for that.

“Where are you going?” he asked instead, yawning and rubbing at his eyes.

Derek stared at him like he was a particular cute kitten that had just done an amazing trick, before patting his bed hair. “Cora, Jackson and Erica are coming with me to brave the waves,” he said, grin growing. “We are going surfing. Do you want to join?”

Stiles snorted, immediately amused. Isaac, still asleep with his head on Stiles’ leg made a noise, and the brunet put a placating hand in his curls, before turning back to the Alpha. “Unless you want to be arrested for manslaughter when I inevitably brain myself on the board,” Derek laughed at his exaggeration, and Stiles rolled his eyes, “No thank you. You asked the rest of them?”

It was both a surprise and not, the fact that Derek liked surfing so much. Werewolves did tend to love all different kinds of sports - part of Stiles had always fantasized about conducting a study on how many sport players were of supernatural inclination (example: Michael Phelps, merman?) - but Derek had always preferred hiking and mountain activities. 

Derek hummed, pointing with his head to the rest of the pack. 

Lydia was asleep in Allison’s arms, her head hidden in the girl’s neck and her feet tangled with Isaac’s. Scott’s head was propped on his girlfriend’s bony hips, and his legs were on Boyd’s tights; Boyd’s head was next to Stiles’ foot.

“I tried waking Boyd and Allison but they both said they would rather sleep; asked Lydia yesterday and she said no thanks and Scott and Isaac told me no in the car.”

“Did you guys have breakfast already?” he questioned then, because he was awake now and way too hot and uncomfortable to go back to sleep. 

“Just coffee and yogurts, we’ll be all right,” started the werewolf, but he was immediately interrupted by Erica, who plopped herself between the two of them.

She turned her big brown eyes on Stiles immediately. “Please, please, please, can you bring lunch? Maybe one of your salads? And sandwiches? And fruit?”

“Parfait?” grumbled Boyd’s voice as he opened his eyes and sat up.

It was incredibly cute and also slightly scary the way Boyd could stay asleep during a literal tornado, but the sound of Erica’s voice was enough to have him opening his eyes.

Erica grinned, clapping her hands together. “Oh my god, yes,  _ please. _ ” 

She turned her gaze to Stiles, blinking as innocently as possible. And well, Stiles was particularly bad at denying them anything. “Fine,” he let out, rolling his eyes when Erica whooped, “Just get Jackson and Cora to write what they want in their sandwiches and I’ll try to make sure everyone gets what they want. There’s a mart 5 minutes from here.”

“I’ll leave my card,” rushed to say Derek, because he was a manipulative little shit who would let the pack get the blame if Stiles had said no, but wanted the little personalised sandwiches as much as anyone else. 

“You’re lucky I love you all,” he grumbled, but immediately softened when Erica dropped a kiss on his forehead and Derek one on his cheek. 

“Love you too!” they called, disappearing back in the kitchen.

Stiles turned his attention back to Boyd, to tell him that they spoiled the pack too much, but of course, now that Erica was gone, Boyd was asleep again. 

+

By the time everyone was done with showering and had found their way into the kitchen, Stiles had showered, got dressed, made coffee, gone to the shop to get as much ingredients as possible, returned, and finished the fruit salad, the normal salad, the parfait and was halfway through the sandwiches. Granted, Boyd had helped with the parfait, but he was still proud of himself for his amazing work.

Lydia, the last one to wake, eyed the contents of the table critically. “They made you their maid again?”

Stiles shrugged, putting down the egg salad sandwich on the side for Cora. “I am too soft on you guys,” he grumbled.

Allison blinked, half of her mozzarella panini gone already. “Hey, it’s your fault for insisting on putting ready made meals in Isaac’s bag every morning when you first joined the pack. We would have never known that you were so good at cooking if you hadn’t done that.”

Isaac looked up from where he had been putting the food in the lunch bag, pretending to be offended. “Derek kept sending me to school with frozen goods,” he said, in a tone that said he was reciting something from memory. “I am a  _ growing  _ boy, Allison. What was he supposed to do? Let me  _ starve _ and become malnourished?”

Scott snorted while Stiles glared and threw a tomato slice at him. “Dude, you sounded exactly like him.”

“I didn’t sound like that!” whined the spark, glaring at the rest of them.

Boyd looked up from where he was covering up the parfait. “You kind did sound like that.” He cleared his throat. “Derek, do  _ not  _ give me that look! What are you going to do when social services shows up and the only thing they see is frozen packages in the fridge? Have you ever seen a werewolf with scurvy? Because you’re about to meet one!”

The rest of the pack immediately cackled, and Boyd grinned, very proud of himself. 

“From now on, you’re no longer my favourite. Lydia, you’re my favourite now.”

The red head showed him a thumbs up, then hid a little laugh behind her hand when the boy kept grumbling about how much he hated them all while continuing to make everyone their favourite sandwiches.

Once everyone was ready and the food was done, they finally stepped outside in the sun, Isaac and Boyd carrying the food bags between the two of them. 

The beach was a little more crowded than it had been the day before, and probably would be completely overcrowded the next day, but they still managed to find the rest of the pack pretty easily.

Cora and Derek were in the water, paddling away on their rented surfs, while Jackson and Erica were waiting back on the sand for them to be done.

They kept paddling for a few seconds, as a wave approached, then they were suddenly on their feet, with a grace and rapidity only werewolves could ever possess. 

When that move was followed by a number of high pitched screeches, Stiles blinked away from the Hale siblings to a group of casual onlookers standing very close to Erica and Jackson who were clearly cheering on the two of them.

Erica glared at them, and Stiles suppressed a smile, even as the screams resounded louder when Cora and Derek started to actually ride the wave.

“Shall we get closer to them?” questioned Scott, already massaging his ear.

Erica turned, looking straight at them with an imploring look in her eyes, and Stiles gave a shit eating grin. “Nah. They can come here when they’re done.” he said, and the girl looked betrayed. Stiles just snickered.

Lydia pulled the sunscreen she had made sure to put on both Allison and Stiles before they had left, and put some on her nose, a single raised eyebrow at him. “You’re not jealous?”

The brunet snorted, like the idea was ludicrous. “It’s kind of hard being jealous of random women on the beach when you have known you were destined together since you were children and you’re in love with each other as much as we are. I get annoyed some times, but not jealous. Derek loves me,” he finished, with a shrug.

“So mature,” commented the girl, and Stiles wasn’t sure if she was being truthful or sarcastic. Sometimes, it was hard to tell with Lydia.

“Who wants to play beach volley?” asked Allison, taking a ball from the bag she had brought along with her. “They don’t seem done with surfing yet, and I’d rather we all eat together.”

Isaac narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you going to threaten us with disembowelment?”

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes, tying up said hair in a high ponytail. “My only actual competition is Erica Reyes. It’s just playing with you guys.”

Boyd looked at her, amused. “You do realise that we are werewolves? We could beat you, easy.”

“Please,” scoffed the girl. “Erica is only competition because she knew how to play before becoming a ‘wolf. You guys are all strength and running fast. Beach volley is all about precision and not too much strength.” The corner of her lips quirked up. “This is the human’s territory.”

Scott arched an eyebrow. “Are you really going to challenge three beta werewolves at a  _ sports  _ game?”

Allison turned her eyes to Lydia and Stiles. The two exchanged a quick glance with each other, before coming to stand next to her.

“Are you scared, McCall?” she asked, and her boyfriend seemed incredibly delighted at this.

“You wish, Argent. Let’s get it, Team Human versus Team Beta,” he called, high fiving Boyd and Isaac in turn.

“Prepare to be thoroughly defeated!” called Stiles, once they were in formation.

Stiles and Allison were standing at the back, while Lydia was under the net; on the other side, Isaac noodle pole ass was under the net while Boyd was on the right and Scott on the left.

“Ball!” shouted Allison, before hitting the ball over.

Isaac immediately intercepted it, sending it back to Boyd and Scott. Boyd laid it up for Scott, and then the wolves hit it as hard as he could.

The ball flew over their heads and over the perimeter of the field.

Lydia put a hand on her mouth, while Scott looked down at his own hand in betrayal. “Oh dear… could it be that you are too strong to play this?” she questioned all fluttering eyelashes and shocked voices.

Boyd glared. “Scott, switch with Isaac. It was just a fluke.”

It was not a fluke.

By the time the other four wolves returned, Team Beta had managed to score 5 points to Team Human’s 21. And half of Team Human’s points were self inflicted by Team Beta, and even when they had decided to stop counting those, they had managed to win, easy.

“Why the long faces?” asked Cora, nudging Isaac.

The werewolf blushed a little, then nudged her back. “Apparently human’s are hardwired to be better at beach volley than werewolves,” he explained, taking a seat next to her on one of the towels.

Jackson pulled Lydia on his lap, and blinked at the rest of the pack. “You guys do realise that Lydia won a tournament in beach volley three years consecutive in middle school right?”

Scott gasped, betrayed, while the girl simply inspected her nails. “You guys are the ones who assumed being werewolves meant you were automatically good at any sport. You’d think that, after the ice skating incident, you’d know better, McCall.”

“And the bowling incident,” added Jackson, in the same tone.

The werewolf pouted, and Allison patted his arm indulgently. “It’s okay that you’re not good at everything the way  _ I  _ am.”

“So modest,” commented Derek, finally managing to detangle himself from where he was surrounded by goo eyed girls. He insinuated himself in the two centimetre space between Jackson and Stiles, ending up with the mole dotted teen basically sprawled in his arms. “Save me.

Stiles looked up at the girls who were still standing, not too far from the pack, then rolled his eyes before placing a kiss on Derek’s lips that was a little too pornographic for a beach with his pack members and various families mulling around. 

“Ew, mom and dad, stop!” complained Isaac, grinning when Stiles stopped the kiss just so that he could show him the middle finger.

“Hearing you call my brother  _ dad _ is possibly the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” commented Cora, disgruntled. “And I once heard Stiles calling Derek daddy.”

Erica turned around so fast her neck not being broken was a miracle, but before her evil mouth could say anything, Stiles was shoving her sandwich in her mouth. “Grilled cheese, just the way you like it!”

The blonde glared at him, then bit down on the sandwich and her attention was gone from him. It was almost funny the way he could control anything the betas wanted - and sometimes even Allison and Lydia - by just giving them food.

Fuck Derek, Stiles was the  _ real  _ Alpha.

“Grilled cheeses for Erica, cheese steak for Jackson, egg salad for Cora,” he started, passing the various paper plates with the cellophaned sandwiches, “Turkey club for you,” Derek accepted his with a kiss, “Mozzarella panini for Ally, tuna melt for Isaac, BLT for Scott, french dip for Lydia, roast beef for Boyd, and my CPP.”

“CPP?” asked Cora, eyeing Stiles’ panini with a confused head tilt.

“Chicken, pepperoni and parmeasan,” he answered, mouth already full.

Lydia made a face at that, nose twitching. “That’s a heart attack and half in bread.”

“Hey, you eat your stupid french dip and leave me and my carbohydrates alone!”

The rest of the lunch passed in relative calm. 

Stiles realised that this was the first time the entire pack had gone on holiday together. The last time they had gone on ‘holiday’, Allison, Lydia, Boyd and Erica (and Cora), hadn’t been there, and they had also had to return back home in a rush because Allison had been taken.

And, with the way their future was rushing ahead and college applications had been already been sent and some offers had been received, this was going to probably be their last holiday in a while.

Jackson and Lydia were planning on going to the same university, either MIT or Princeton; Boyd was thinking of deferring and staying back, and Erica had already told Sheriff Stilinski she wanted an apprenticeship or internship at the station for now; Allison and Scott were both going to the University of Florida, although Allison hadn’t received her acceptance letter yet; Isaac was going to be the farthest away from them, all the way in New Jersey, alone. Cora hadn’t shared with any of them were she was planning on going, and Stiles was going to be off to Berkeley.

And sure, they’d still all be coming back every summer, and they’d catch up as much as they could throughout the year but… it was hard going from being in each other’s pocket all the time to suddenly being apart from each other for more than 9 months per years.

Who was going to be there and console Jackson when he had a nightmare about being the kanima once again? Who’s bed was Isaac going to slip in because he felt lonely? Who was Lydia going to speak to when she started feeling unsure about her place in the pack? Who was Scott going to talk to when he felt like he was drowning in his work and needed someone to lift him up?

And sure, Erica, and probably Boyd, were going to remain local, but would Derek be okay? Going from the pack spending more nights than normal in his house at any given time to only seeing them maybe on the holidays? Was he going to be lonely again?

“What’s up with that huge line in your face? I thought I was the grumpy one,” commented Derek, sitting next to Stiles with a vanilla cream and an ice lollie in his hands. 

Stiles blinked, not having even noticed him moving, before accepting the lollie, grateful. “I can be plenty grumpy if I want to,” he let him know, opening his ice cream.

Derek sat next to him, back to the pole of the umbrella, and snorted. “Of course you can, but you usually have a reason. So...” he looked at him, sunglasses sitting on top of his head, vanilla on his lips and a single arched eyebrow. He looked ridiculous.

The other boy took the sunglasses from him and put them on, before giving a tentative lick to his lollie. “I was thinking about you, and us. And you know… college.”

Understanding dawned on Derek, but he kept his face more or less blank otherways. 

Stiles continued, with a sigh. “I just… college is already around the corner, and it just sort of sneaked up on me. I feel like a soccer mom sending all of her children away for the first time, and I sort of hate that I decided to go to Berkley alone. Scott and Allison are gonna be all the way in Florida, and the rest are going to peppered all around the 50 states. What if something happens? What if they need me but they’re so far and I end up arriving too late? What if-”

“You do sound like a panicked mom,” told him Derek, and that was enough to make him stop panicking. He shot his boyfriend a glare, and Derek smiled warmly. “But it’s normal that you’re scared about the pack moving away. It’s hard for me too, knowing you’ll all be so far from me.” He shook his head. “But I also know that it’s not fair for me to try and keep you in Beacon Hills if it’s not what you want to do.

“You, and Lydia, and everyone else are much too smart to stay cooped up here for the rest of your lives without checking the outside world at least once. You deserve to see what’s out there before deciding if you want to stay here with the pack or not.”

Stiles swallowed. “Are you not scared that they might see something out there and decide that they don’t want to come back?”

The Alpha’s smile was bittersweet at that. “I’ve been scared of that since the moment I bit them. I’ve been scared of another pack showing up and them deciding that they wanted to go with them. Hell, I was scared that once they saw mom and Laura, they would decide to join  _ that  _ pack.” He sighed, taking a lick of the vanilla ice in his hands. “But I also trust them. They’re my pack. They’ll come back to me.” He nodded and made eye contact with Stiles. “ _ You _ ’ll come back to me.”

The brunet just smiled brightly. “Oh, that’s a given. I’m your mate. I couldn’t even manage to move out of the state, because I didn’t want to have you all bored far back home.”

“Actually,” said the werewolf, lighting up. “I’ve been looking for a job.” Stiles gasped, and Derek’s grin grew up. “I do have a degree that’s been doing nothing but growing mold back home.”

“Oh my god, you’re going to be a history teacher?”

The fact that Stiles knew what Derek graduated as without the werewolf having  _ ever  _ alluded to it should worry/confuse him, but this was  _ Stiles _ . Of  _ course _ he knew what Derek’s degree was in.

“That’s so fucking hot,” then said the brunet, tongue twirling around the lollie.

Derek’s eyes were on him immediately, transfixed. “Yeah?”

Stiles slowly pushed the lollie further in his mouth, past the dark red, orange, green, pink and the last yellow, making a humming noise in the back of his throat.

“Jesus Christ,” muttered Derek, as Stiles kept eye contact with him before pulling it out with an almost obscene pop. 

“What? Like it’s  _ hard _ ,” said Stiles, and from the tilt of his lips he knew exactly what he was doing or saying.

“It definitely is,” commented his boyfriend, and Stiles’ smirk grew as he came closer.

“Is it?” he questioned, moving the ice lolly in the other hand before climbing on Derek’s lap, face to face with him. His eyes were hidden behind Derek’s sunglasses, but Derek knew they were probably alight with myrth. “Just because I was innocently eating ice cream?”

The werewolf shivered when Stiles empty and cold hand pressed against his chest, slowly going down to his abs. “There was  _ nothing  _ innocent about the way you were eating that ice cream-oh,”

Stiles’ grin grew, his hand now completely hidden in Derek’s short swim  [ shorts ](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOonDb9W4AAEv21.jpg) . “Oh?”

Derek took a deep breath through his nose, his eyes darker than before as Stiles hand - cold and wet from the lolly - wrapped around his length. “We are on a public beach.”

The brunet’s hand didn’t stop, slowly pumping the hardness in Derek’s pants with a smirk. “That we are.”

The werewolf let out a shuddering breath, putting his head on his shoulder. “ _ Stiles _ .”

“Yes, Der bear?” he asked, index and thumb painfully squeezing at the tip of Derek’s cock. 

Derek hissed in both pleasure and pain, planting his hands on the sand, his vanilla ice forgotten.

Stiles blinked at Derek’s ice cream on the floor, and his attention turned to the melting lolly in his. “Oh no way!” he decided, standing abruptly up and nearly sending Derek on the ground.

The werewolf stared at him in shock, as Stiles stood up, licking all the places the ice cream had started to melt. The brunet glared at him. “What, you want me to waste a perfectly good lolly? Are you crazy?”

“You… you…”

The other just grinned, and winked at him. “Me.”

“You’re the  _ worst _ , you fucking tease, oh my god.”

“Love you too, sourwolf!”

+

They spent the rest of the day in small groups all around the beach, and, by the time the sun started falling, the entire pack was sitting in plastic chairs outside a karaoke bar watching as Cora waited for her turn to compete.

“I can’t believe I don’t get to compete,” complained Erica, crossing her arms together. “How did you guys even find out about this?”

Allison and Derek, who had been with Cora when she had signed up, shrugged. “A guy on the beach tried to ask her out and bring her here,” then explained the werewolf.

Isaac blinked, leaning forward a little. “She’s here on a date?” His tone was a little high, and Stiles’ tilted his head to the side, carefully watching him. “Should we be here then? Maybe we should leave.”

Allison rolled her eyes. “As if, she told him to shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.” Isaac relaxed, and a little smile appeared on his lips. Stiles’ eyes narrowed. “But, since she apparently is a queen of singing, she decided she would join anyway. Sorry, Rica, she was literally the last one to join.”

The blonde sighed, wincing after a red haired man child finished a very terrible rendition of ‘ _ All I want for Christmas’ _ , then shrugged. “What song did she choose anyway?”

Her question was mostly aimed at Allison, but Derek smirked. “She didn’t say, but knowing her-”

He didn’t get to finish the sentence as Cora finally appeared on the stage, and the pack went wild, clapping and whistling and being as obnoxious as humanly possible. The rest of the people around them seemed in both part amused and annoyed at their display, but Cora looked mostly smug. As if to say ‘ _ yeah, I already have groupies _ ’, or something.

“Well, apparently number 30 already has a number of fans in the audience,” boomed the voice of the dj, and the catcalls from the pack grew louder. “And  _ enthusiastic  _ at that. I like it! Now, number 30, present yourself and tell us what you intend to sing to us today.”

Cora grabbed the mic, confidence oozing from her. “All right. My name is Cora,” cue screams from the pack, “I’m 18 years old from Beacon Hills. I like photography and today I will sing,” she clicked her fingers together and the dj started the music.

And,

“She isn’t,” groaned Stiles, trying to melt into his chair.

Derek was almost cackling. “She  _ is _ .”

“I cannot believe Cora Hale is rick rolling the entire pack,” said Jackson shaking his head, but there was a hint of  _ something  _ like pride in his face.

Because, yes. Cora Hale was singing Rick Astley’s iconic hit, a grin on her face.

“We’re no stranger to love… you know the rules, and so do I. A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of, you wouldn’t get this from, any other guy! I just wanna tell you how I feel, gotta make you un-derstand!”

And because the pack was who they were, they were immediately singing along with her.

“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you! Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye... never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!”

Cora was almost laughing in the mic as she sang the next stanza of the song. Despite the fact that the pack was singing along and the song was a well known meme, Cora’s voice was actually steady, strong and pleasant to listen to as she sang.

And, Isaac couldn’t stop staring at her.

The whole pack was looking at her, of course. She was on stage and singing. 

But Isaac’s gaze meant something very different, and Stiles pursed his lips as the pack exploded for the second chorus, this time along with many of the other humans sitting around.

When the blond’s eyes turned to him, Stiles just smiled, and pretended like he hadn’t been staring at him the whole time.

* * *

**DAY THREE**

Jackson didn’t look particularly impressed when he opened the door of their bedroom and his nose caught a smell that could only mean one thing. 

“He started it,” immediately said Stiles, pointing at Derek.

The Alpha turned to glare at him. “I wasn’t the one  _ deepthroating  _ a goddamn ice lolly on the beach and-”

“TMI!” Immediately stopped them the blond beta, nose scrunching up in disgust. “God. We are dividing in two groups; half of us is going jet skiing and the other half is going diving. You guys game?”

The brunet immediately lit up, grabbing his shorts from the floor. “Uh,  _ yeah _ ? I’ve always wanted to ride a jet ski!”

Jackson politely looked away as Stiles put on a said shorts. “If you want to jet ski, it’s you, me, Lydia, Boyd and Allison. Everyone else is diving.”

Derek hummed, then shrugged. “I’ll go with the diving group, then.”

The blond beta narrowed his eyes at him. “Why does it feel like we are being chaperoned by the two of you, all of a sudden?”

Stiles snorted. “You’re  _ always  _ chaperoned by the two of us, no matter what you do or where we go,” he told him, walking out in the living room.

The rest of the pack was all around the living room, in various stages of dressing up, but Stiles ignored them all, making a beeline for the coffee machine.

“Belzebuth’s bean juice, give me the endorphins and the seratonim!” he chanted, before sipping the scalding drink.

Erica looked at him with a creepy grin from where she was perched on one of the stool, leftover parfait in front of her. “Hair in disarray: check. Stubble burn: check. Limping: check. Love bites on neck and back: check.” Her grin grew. “Symptoms of a Hale loving!”

Stiles was too busy drinking his coffee to answer her, but Isaac wasn’t. 

“Erica!” He screeched, face disgusted. “I don’t need to  _ know  _ that.”

Lydia made a face. “Make sure you burn those sheets, Stilinski.”

Cora glared at the brunet before turning her eyes in the direction of the bedroom. “I was in the  _ same house _ , Derek! What the  _ fuck _ !”

Scott was looking at Stiles all judging, while Allison and Boyd remained as impassible as ever. Jackson put an arm around Isaac, a wicked grin in his face. “See what happened is that your parents had  _ sex _ .” he told him, snickering when Isaac pushed him on the floor, wailing like he was in physical pain.

“You’re not the Rosa Diaz you think you are, Whittemore!”

“But you are Amy Santiago, no matter how you spin it!”

+

Jet skiing was  _ awesome _ !

Sure, he had ended up in the water an embarrassing amount of times, but Stiles had a lot of fun in the water with Allison, Lydia, Jackson and Boyd. 

Since it was Saturday and the main beach was going to be filled with various tourists and families, Lydia had led them all to a more secluded and more dangerous portion of the beach, and that’s where they had set down their towels and various clothing.

Because no matter how dangerous it was, they had six beta wolves, one alpha wolf, a huntress, a spark and a banshee; the ocean was still mostly unexplored, but very little could stand against them all and survive.

The instructors - both for diving and for jet skiing - were pretty impressed by the werewolves, and by the end of the session, Stiles was pretty sure they thought they were part of a drug testing group for some sort of new steroids for water sports.

He was the first one back on the sand after fucking around with the jet skies, and immediately laid down on the towel, keeping an eye on the jet ski team - oh god, Jackson was right when he had accused him of being a  _ chaperone  _ \- but it wasn’t long before he noticed Erica swimming ashore and taking off her diving kit once she got there.

“Hey,” she called, a few minutes later, settling next to him on the towel. “Need help sun screening?”

“Derek covered me head to toe,” he answered, rolling his eyes. “I feel like an oily fry.”

“It’s not our fault you and Allison burn so easily,” she answered, but her smile told him that his suffering greatly amused her. Erica was a  _ bitch _ . 

Despite that, Stiles smiled a little. “We get it from mom, I think. We have her skin tone, and all.”

Erica had seen pictures of Claudia Stilinski - hell the pictures she had seen were the reason they had figured out that Stiles and Allison were twins - and she could only agree. She was very pale too, despite having lived in California for such a long time, and both of her children had inherited it.

Sensing Stiles’ scent turning a little nostalgic at the mention of his mother, she spoke again. “I have to tell you something.”

The brunet looked up at her, but she was staring at the water, gaze hidden from a pair of huge heart shaped sunglasses. “Okay…”

“It’s not about me, and it’s not bad,” Stiles relaxed slightly, and Erica bit on her lip, thoughtful. “At least I don’t think it’s bad.”

“Oh.” said the other, and Erica turned to look at him. There was a small grimace on his face. “I think I know what you mean?”

Erica pulled up her sunglasses, narrowing her brown eyes at him. “Does it have to do with two members of the pack?”

Stiles thought about it for a moment. “One member of the pack, and one pack associate that I don’t know if they’re a member or not. Like, I don’t feel her pack bond, but she’s here on the trip with us.” 

The blonde nodded, and turned her face towards the water. The spot were they were diving was too far to see with human eyes, but her werewolf sight could still make them out. “When did you realise?”

The spark didn’t need to ask her what she meant. “I’ve had my suspicions for a while. But yesterday kind of solidified my theories; the way he was looking at her when she was singing - no mistaking it. He has a  _ big  _ crush, if not worse. You?”

“When we saw Ethan and Danny kissing in school last week, and he had no reaction, I was confused. But after the volley match on Thursday, and the way he blushed when she just spoke to him, made me sure of it,” she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Isaac has a crush on Cora Hale.”

Stiles groaned, hiding his face behind his arms. “This is going to suck so bad.”

The werewolf tilted her head to the side. “Do you not like Cora?”

“I  _ adore  _ Cora,” immediately answered the other, heart not skipping, “but right now, she is this huge question mark. She is not in the pack, and we only see her on the weekends. She also hasn’t shown any sort of attraction to Isaac, nothing other than friendship and…” he paused, biting the inside of his cheek. Erica kept looking at him, intrigued. “If I tell you something, do you  _ promise  _ to not tell anyone ever? Derek doesn’t even know or suspect any of this, yet.”

Erica nodded, pulling out her pinky. “Pinky swear,” she promised, linking their pinkies together.

Stiles pushed his hair backwards, thinking about how to phrase his thoughts for a second. “All right. Okay. So the thing is, even though at some point I erased everyone’s memory of me and our friendship as children, Cora and I were kind of close as children. Not as close as me and all of you, but kind of close, still.

“She came to my birthday party once, with Derek and Laura. And immediately, she made a beeline for one of you guys. She was super nice to them, and they were basically best friends by the end of the afternoon. It was like she intrinsically understood him and he understood her. And now that she came back into our lives, she recreated the dynamic of their ‘friendship’” he made air quotes with his fingers, “Just as fast.”

The girl’s expression was worried. “It wasn’t Isaac, was it?”

Stiles’ was miserable. “No. Isaac didn’t come to my birthday party, that year. It was my last birthday before everything went to shit with my mom, Paige and his mom,” he shook his head. “But that doesn’t matter. It wasn’t Isaac, it was…  _ Jackson _ .”

He watched as a myriad of expressions flickered across her eyes. Worry, surprise, confusion, horror, and then, understanding. But what she said next wasn’t what Stiles expected.

“So that’s why Lydia can’t stand Cora,” she mused, and he stared at her in shock. She blinked. “ _ You  _ didn’t notice? I’m not surprised no one else picked up on it, but I’m surprised you  _ didn’t _ .”

Stiles scratched his cheek, confused. “Lydia doesn’t like Cora? Hold on, she knows that Cora might be on her way to develop some sort of crush on Jackson?”

“As you remember, I used to have epilepsy and 0 friends,” Stiles was going to have whiplash from the different directions the conversation was taking. “You know how I was always able to taste oranges in my mouth just before having an attack? Well, I used to also be able to pick up on the slightest hint of ‘fakeness’ from any girl in our school, especially when they addressed me. Call it paranoia or whatever, but I basically trained myself in being able to sniff when someone was pretending to be nice to me, for whatever reason.” 

“And you can sense that from Lydia?”

“Every time she talks to Cora, there is an edge to her voice. A kind of venom that she  _ never  _ uses with any of us. Not at the beginning, not when she first met Cora. But the more time Cora and Jackson spend together, the sharper she becomes,” she explained. “It’s not jealousy. Jealousy has a certain scent. I am not even sure she’s aware of what she’s doing.”

“This is a mess. And Jackson?” asked the brunet, watching the waves in front of him with an apprehensive expression.

“Has no clue,” answered the blonde, shrugging. “Isaac has a crush on Cora. Cora likes spending time with Jackson, Lydia’s boyfriend. Jackson likes spending time with Cora, Isaac’s crush. And Lydia hates Cora.”

Stiles stayed quiet for a moment, then laid back down on the towel. “This is a mess,” he repeated.

“XOXO, Gossip Girl,” answered Erica with a snort.

+

“Hey, Derek?” called Boyd, collecting some of the bags of food from the restaurant waitress.

The Alpha fished out his credit card, passing it to the cashier and raised a brow in a ‘ _ proceed _ ,’ gesture.

Once everyone had returned to the beach after jet skiing and diving underwater, the pack had found themselves on the secluded area of the beach, all of them complaining about how hungry they were and ‘ _ will you really let your pack starve, Hale _ ?’.

So Derek, with varied huffing and puffing, had told them he was going to pick out their lunches at the restaurant on the beach and, together with Boyd, collected everyone’s order.

The older man hadn’t asked Boyd to come with him, but since the man had volunteered, it was clear that he needed to be alone with Derek for one reason or another, so the Alpha hadn’t told him he didn’t need help.

“I’m not going to college, next year,” finally said the beta wolf and. Oh.

That did sort of surprise Derek.

While on one side he was very much aware that Boyd was in a turmoil over college, unsure on whether to go or whether to stay home, he had mostly expected him to go; after all, wasn’t college where you were supposed to ‘find’ yourself if you weren’t sure of what you wanted?

He didn’t voice any of those thoughts. Instead he nodded, looking at him sideways. “Do you know what you’re going to do instead?”

The other man swallowed, and glanced at him for a second. Then, “I’m thinking of going to culinary school, and have my own bakery. I know it’s a super ambitious dream to have, and getting the loan from the bank and everything will take a while and-”

“Bank?” Derek snorted, rolling his eyes. “No bank. I have more than enough-”

“Derek,” tried Boyd, but the man ignored him.

“Look, Vernon,” the younger man arched an eyebrow because first naming him meant  _ business.  _ Unless you were Erica. “You guys are my pack, my family. Any Alpha worth its name would break their back to make sure that their pack is always happy, no matter what. You guys are important to me, which means your happiness is important to me. And that means doing whatever it takes to make you happy.

“Four fifths of my family died in the fire, and left me with more money than I could ever manage to spend in my lifetime. I  _ can  _ help you. I  _ want  _ to help you,” he stopped walking so that he was staring at Boyd in the eyes. “ _ Let me  _ help you.”

It was clear that Boyd was uncomfortable with the whole thing, so Derek changed direction. “And then, if you still want to, when you start making enough money, I’ll let you pay me back.”

As if. He was going to wire a new bank account for future baby B. Reyes if Boyd dared to return the money. But what the beta didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

He perked up slightly. “So, it’ll be like a loan?”

“Sure.”

Boyd thought about it for a second, then smiled a little at his Alpha. “There are no concrete plans yet. I don’t know what I want to sell, or where the bakery would be or anything yet, but… thank you for being willing to help.”

As much as he loved his pack and enjoyed helping them (“Spoiling them, Derek. You’re spoiling them.”), direct affection still flustered him a bit. So he quickly changed topic. “I’m glad at least two of you will stay in Beacon Hills with me.”

Boyd grinned, suddenly. “On the bright side, Erica and me might decide to move in with you.” Derek made a face at that, and the other pushed him, snickering. “You ass. But, speaking on moving in together,” he then said, eyes sparkling. “You and Stiles?” 

Technically - and as far as Sheriff Stilinski was concerned - Stiles didn’t live at Derek’s place. He was still in high school, after all, and unlike half of the pack, he had a parent who cared about him.

But most of the weekends were spent over at the Hale house, and a lot of his laundry found itself mixed with Derek’s, and the first place anyone expected to see him was at Derek’s place.

He was  _ basically  _ moved in.

So Derek had pressed past that step and,

“I’m thinking of proposing to Stiles,” he said.

“Really.” said Boyd, no inflection in his voice.

Derek frowned a little. “I thought you’d be more surprised.”

“Oh, okay,” the beta cleared his throat, and said, “Really?” in a faux shocked voice.

The Alpha blinked at him. “You already knew,” he guessed, unsure if he should be annoyed or surprised.

The other boy smirked. “The  _ whole pack  _ already knew. Minus Cora and Stiles,” he quickly added, added at the worried expression on Derek’s face.

“How?”

“You hid it in the flower pot,” reminded him the beta, shrugging. “We moved everything to the new pack house at Christmas, remember? And Jackson broke the flower pot, and the ring box fell. Lydia panicked because she thought Jackson was going to propose to her and then Jackson panicked because he thought Lydia wanted him to propose to her.” Derek snorted, just imagining the chaos. “By the time Lydia and Jackson admitted that  _ neither  _ of them was ready for marriage, we figured out that it was yours.”

Derek smiled bashfully. “And what did you guys think?”

“Stiles will love it, the ring is really nice, and the whole pack approves. Remember how we showered you in hugs when you got back and kept telling you how proud we were of you?”

The Alpha did remember. “I  _ thought  _ it was weird that I was being congratulated for coming to my own birthday/Christmas party, but Stiles didn’t find anything weird with it at all.”

Boyd snorted. “He  _ can  _ be a little oblivious, sometimes.” 

The pack appeared in their line of sight, and the beta knocked shoulders with Derek. “Whenever you decided to do it, just know that the whole pack is ready and willing to help you. Erica has even suggested matching outfits for everyone when you do it.”

“Good lord,” he groaned, “You’re joking right? Right?”

Boyd just laughed.

"Right?"

+

Sitting in the patio of Lydia’s beach house, a lit bonfire in the middle of their group and the moon shining brightly in the sky: this was an image Stiles wanted to photograph and keep with him with the rest of his life.

“I can’t believe we’re going back tomorrow,” grumbled Erica, toasting her s’mores in the fire. “Can we stay one more day?”

“We have the chemistry final on Monday,” reminded her Lydia, shaking her head. “Unless you want to spend Sunday evening driving all the way back to Beacon Hills while stuck in traffic and then risk crashing during the exam, we should really follow my timetable.”

The blonde pouted, popping the scalding snack in her mouth. She hissed in pain, but still kept chewing in, like a true champ.

Stiles watched her, envious. “It’s just at times like this that I wish I was a werewolf,” he shook his head. “Watching you guys eat burning food because you can’t wait for 5 minutes for it to cool down and still not burning your faces off… you guys are so lucky.”

“You’re so weird,” told him Derek, and Stiles stuck out his tongue at him.

“You love me.”

“Ugh,” complained Jackson, rolling his eyes. “You guys are honestly gross.”

“Shut up, you’ll miss us when you’re all the way in Princeton,” said the brunet, haughty.

The blond didn’t sass him back. Instead he looked around the pack, and squeezed Lydia’s hand in hers. “Yeah. I guess,” he admitted, looking down and frowning at Lydia’s hand in his.

Jackson was not one for vulnerability, and rarely admitted to everyone that he cared about them; it took Stiles a hot minute to make sure the pack stopped teasing him when he admitted his weaknesses, so when Erica opened her mouth, he immediately tensed.

“At least you’ll be in a new town, making everyone your bitch. I’ll be all alone here in Beacon Hills with Derek,” she said, and the brunet relaxed.

In Erica-ian this was basically ‘ _ I love you and I’ll miss you too _ ’.

“Actually,” said Boyd, shooting Derek a look. The Alpha smiled, and Boyd turned his attention to the rest of the pack. “I’m staying in Beacon Hills too. I’m still planning what I want to do, but I don’t think going to college will help me.”

Stiles moved his hand past Allison and Scott and patted him on the back, a huge smile on his face. “Proud of you, dude.”

Boyd smiled back. “Thank you, Stilinski.”

“What about you?” asked Isaac, suddenly turning to Cora, once everyone was done congratulating Boyd. The girl paused with her hot dog in her mouth, and Stiles could spy a blush creeping up on the blond’s cheeks. “I mean, I know you’re still a junior, but… have you, I don’t know, thought…?”

Cora took a bite of the dog, and then nodded. “Uh-uh. I was looking at MIT, Berkeley and Harvard, actually,” she admitted, and Isaac’s eyes turned impossibly wide. “I’m on the fast track course, so I’m actually going to be graduating next January instead of July. Which means I could technically join the February starters next year.”

“I’m going to Harvard too!” told her the blond, and Cora looked surprised at the information. “One familiar face.”

The younger girl smiled a little, pleased. “Yeah.”

“So you’re basically going to be graduating with our pack,” commented Lydia, eyes almost detached.

But because of Erica’s earlier words, Stiles had been paying extra attention to the red haired girl, paying clear attention to her tone of voice and use of words.

His eyes met Erica’s across the fire, and he knew he hadn’t imagined the sharpness of the words ‘ _ our pack _ ’ and the way her expression had turned a little cold when Cora had mentioned ‘MIT’. 

But Cora - and the rest of the pack - didn’t pick up on those very much hidden notes in her voice. The brown haired girl just smiles, “Yeah, apparently.”

Stiles hadn’t been with the pack for as long as he had without being able and knowing the best ways to avoid disastrous arguments and potential fights. So he grinned at Lydia, “Speaking of graduating, isn’t it kind of insane of how the delightful Lydia Martin,  _ regina maxima absoluta  _ of the Hale Pack, got accepted by every IVY League in America? You’re amazing, Lyds.”

Lydia preened at the compliment, relaxing, and Cora’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, really? That’s insanely amazing.”

The red haired blinked at her for a second, then smiled. 

It was small, but it was real, and Stiles counted it as a win. From Erica’s wink at him, she did too.

Scott shook his head, smiling. “I can’t believe we are all going to go our separate ways. It’s so weird… I’m so used to spending all my time with you guys.”

His girlfriend shook her head. “We aren’t going separate ways. We are just branching out for a few years, and then coming back. I mean, I’m definitely coming back.”

“Of course you’re coming back,” scoffed Stiles, pretending he didn’t have a node in his throat just thinking about them all leaving. “I’ll hunt you down if I have to. We are pack.”

The pack smiled at him; Erica took Isaac’s hand in hers, Lydia got more comfortable in Jackson’s arms, Scott and Boyd knocked shoulders together, Allison patted Stiles’ head and Cora gave her brother a shy smile.

For a second his eyes felt a little blurry. 

Goddamn onions.

“Give me a second, I,” started Erica out of nowhere, clapping her hands together. “I need to get my story straight, my friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State,”

“My lover she’s waiting for me, just across the bar,” joined Isaac, as the rest of the pack started clapping along, “My seat’s been taken by some sunglasses asking bout a scar and,”

“I know I gave it to you months ago,” sang Cora, voice clear, “I know you’re trying to forget...”

Then Scott, “But between the drinks and subtle things, the holes in my apologies, you know, I’m trying hard to take it back…”

“So if by the time the bar closes, and you feel like falling down,” conducted Allison, making shapes in the air with a grin, “I’ll carry you home…”

“TONIGHT!” Chorused the entire pack, Boyd’s deep baritone mixing with Lydia’s shrill singing. “WE ARE YOUNG!”

“So let’s set the world on FIRE!” duetted Stiles and Derek, a huge happy grin on the younger boy’s face and an embarrassed but resolute tilt in Derek’s expression. “We can burn BRIGHTER! Than the SUUUUN!”

“TONIIIIIIGHT! WE ARE YOUNG!” Shouted the pack again, because calling that singing was just offensive. “SO LET’S SET THE WORLD ON FIIIIIIIIRE! WE CAN BURN BRIIIIIGHTER! THAN THE SUUUUUUUUN!”

Then Jackson, Boyd and Scott together, “Now I know that, I’m not… all that, you’ve gooot! I guess that I… I just thought! Maybe we could find new ways to fall apart!”

“But our friends are back!” sang Allison, Lydia and Erica, eyes closed and face radiant. “So let’s raise a tab! Cause I found someone to carry me hoooome….”

“TONIGHT! WE ARE YOUNG! SO LET’S SET THE WORLD ON FIREEE! WE CAN BURN BRIGHTEEER! THAN THE SU-OW-OW-OWN”

And, as the pack finished off the song, the fire burning happily in front of them and the moon watching over them, Stiles could just smile happy.

They would be okay.


End file.
